INFLATION: Set of Unpalatable Options

IN public, the Nixon Administration
professes serene confidence in its economic strategy. But backstage, a
gnawing unease is growing. Indeed, President Nixon has recently called
on his advisers, and some outside economists, to suggest alternatives
to the tattered anti-inflation policy of Phase III. From board room to
checkout counter, public pressure is building for some decisive action
to deal with an economy that seems to have spun out of control into the
kind of inflationary binge that historically precedes recession.

Signs of this economic runaway proliferate regularly. New ones last
week: